Page from a Sketchbook Depicting a City under Siege and a Scene of Homage(?) (recto); standing figures and a horseman; male and female figures; a battle scene (verso)
Domenico Beccafumi, 1520s
About this artwork
This intimate sketchbook page by Domenico Beccafumi, a leading Sienese artist of the early 16th century, captures the turbulence of Renaissance Italy on both sides. Dating to the 1520s, the recto features a dramatic city under siege—walls battered by attackers—and a tentative scene of homage, perhaps knights paying tribute. The verso bursts with dynamic studies: standing figures, aeman, male and female groups, and a chaotic battle, evoking the endless Italian Wars that ravaged city-states like Siena. Crafted in pen and brown ink with faint red chalk underdrawing on the recto, and lighter inks reinforced in darker tones on the verso, the sheet (just 8½ by 5¾ inches) reveals Beccafumi's Mannerist flair for expressive linework and spatial invention. These quick, layered sketches show his process—initial ideas refined by the same hand—highlighting how artists prepared grand frescoes or panels amid Siena's vibrant but strife-torn artistic scene. Part of the Robert Lehman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this drawing offers a window into Beccafumi's imagination, blending historical drama with human energy. Visitors, imagine flipping such a page in his studio, horses charging and soldiers clashing in ink!